A Prudential Center Janitor Explains Why A Major Strike Looms Over Boston

Manuel
Fernandez picks up your mess at the Prudential Center. Not just
yours, in fact, but also that of the spoiled brats who leave their
stinking Pinkberry cups strewn across the food court tables, and the
shitty little kids and men with bad aim who soil the rest rooms. For
this he makes $16.20 an hour, with good benefits, and he doesn't
complain – even though he hustles from 6:30am to 6pm, and gets a
mere hour of rest time spread out across the day. If anything,
Fernandez is grateful for his job with the Prudential's third-party
contractor, the Waltham-based Janitronics Building Services, who have
nearly doubled his salary since he began working there 16 years ago.

For
his pay increase and benefits – healthcare plus six sick days
annually – Fernandez credits the Service Employees International
Union Local 615, which represents about 18,000 property service
workers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, 14,000 of
whom are janitors. Even with their support, though, Fernandez says
that workers are routinely told that their jobs are on the line, and
are regularly threatened with termination just for standing up for
themselves. Janitronics, the allegation goes, manipulates hours so as
to have fewer full-time workers who receive benefits. “These
companies are always trying to suck out every dollar that they can,”
says Fernandez.

Just
last Saturday, Local 615 workers voted unanimously to strike – as
soon as Monday, October 1 – if their demands are not met by the
Maintenance Contractors of New England, with whom they're
negotiating. So with their contract expiring this Sunday, on Thursday
afternoon, organizers from the SEIU and other groups were on Copley Square, where
they trained about 100 community activists in
nonviolent direct action. Most people in the crowd were familiar with
the techniques – they're veterans of such demonstrations as last
year's sit-in at Bank of America on Franklin Street, as well as a
number of foreclosure eviction blockades and, in some cases, even the
last Greater Boston janitor's strike in 2002, when public pickets won SEIU members many of their current benefits and
wages.

It
looks as if an extension of contract negotiations is imminent. Even
if they're still at the bargaining table, though, workers may
hit the streets soon. “What you could see are many different acts
of civil disobedience,” says one organizer. Though they note some differences, worker advocates compared
the predicament to recent happenings in Houston, where janitors
recently revolted against behemoths like Shell, Chevron, and JP
Morgan, which were ignoring demands for basic living wages. “We'll
see if I'm right," said the organizer, "but I think the business people are going to be
smarter here than they were in Houston.”

I'm
happy to report that there's been significant coverage of this
looming strike – some of which has even been supportive. In a day
and age when teachers are vilified and nonchalantly degraded by
forces from the left to the far right, it's actually encouraging to
know that at least one group of people who keep America moving is
spared. Perhaps there's a bit of humanity and respect left for
laborers; as one activist said to me yesterday: “It's hard to
imagine anybody looking at anyone who's a janitor – say, the person
who cleans the office that they work at – and calling them
'greedy.'”

Support
is mounting. A number of elected officials including commonwealth
treasurer Steve Grossman are writing letters on behalf of the
workers, as are other unions, while the SEIU has some of the same advocates who
coordinated pickets down in Houston working here.
Groups like MassUniting, Right to the City, ACE, and the Boston
Workers Alliance are also on board, all but guaranteeing that there
will be heads in the street if and when the strike erupts. As for
workers like Manuel . . . they're on board – unanimously. They have
nothing to lose. Except, of course, for their jobs. “I came here to
keep on with the struggle,” says Fernandez. “We don't want them
to commit these injustices. We won't stand for it.”